Tuesday, December 18, 2012

We are a culture of entitlement. Let me be clear, I am not referring to entitlement programs put forth by policy. No, I am referring to the overall belief of personal entitlement. As a culture, we have determined, generation after generation, that we are entitled. We are entitled to pick which Scripture we want to follow, which laws we think are unnecessary and which laws we expect others to obey. We believe we are entitled to pick who we will treat kindly and who we will exclude. We believe we are entitled to dream up our own facts without proof or research. We have become a culture who is entitled to our ignorance.

Most of us were raised to believe that we are special just because we were born. We have been programmed to believe that if we put our mind to it, we can accomplish anything. We were raised to believe that there are absolutes in life. No wonder our society has a difficult time with disappointment. We were never told that failure was even possible. Maybe others can fail, but not me. I have God on my side.

Scripture states that we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us. We get “road rage” when someone cuts us off on public roads but expect people to understand when we break in line at the grocery, movie theatre, or in traffic. We lie without understanding that there is consequence. We get angry when people lie to us. We segregate society based on our own bias. We demonize people who speak their mind and in the same breath, we will defend our freedom of speech. We then turn around and try to sell them on our beliefs and then are offended when they do not succumb to our judgement. Judge not, that you be not judged. If we are to quote Scripture, then by God, we’d better be living by it.

Some are so righteous to believe that what is wrong with our society today is that we have turned our back on God. OK. Let us go back to the days when God was at the forefront of our society. Remember those days? I know that the native Americans remember those days. I’m positive that the slaves remember those days. I would bet my life that the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who gave theirs in the Civil War remember those days. How about the innocent black people who were raped, murdered, segregated, and lynched? I know they remember those days. Oh, the good ol’ days when God was politically correct. We were all peaceful, loving, do-gooders who were doing God’s will. Of course we were doing God’s will, God was on our side.

We are a society entitled to illegally downloading music from the internet although that is classified as stealing. We are entitled to driving ten miles an hour over the speed limit because we have a lot to get done. We are a society entitled to celebrating in public our own religion but no one else’s. We are entitled to our misinformed beliefs on climate change, although, scientists and facts tell us that the truth is known. We are a society entitled to our guns, even though we take no personal responsibility for the tragedies that have occurred. We are a part of an entitled culture.

There is good news though. There is hope. Entitlement is an illness that we can overcome. Entitlement is a mistake that we can fix. Entitlement is a plague that can be cured. It can be cured if we just changed one word in our culture. If, instead of entitlement, we were to be a culture of responsibility. Responsibility for our speech. Responsibility for our actions. Responsibility for our history and our future. We have a responsibility to our children. We have a responsibility to our planet. And above all, we have a responsibility to our fellow human beings. Knowledge is responsibility.

Maybe, if we strived to be a culture of responsibility, we would find it easier to forgive. Maybe, if we strived to be a culture of responsibility, we would find it easier to change. Maybe, if we strived to be a culture of responsibility, we would find it easier to love. Maybe, if we were responsible for each other, we would finally take responsibility for ourselves.Maybe, just maybe, we would then finally take responsibility of our ignorance.

“A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.”